THE GLANDS. 261 
this, beside the diminished size of the animal, is the only pe- 
culiarity I have been able to discover in the animals found in the 
far south. On the very large buck which I killed in Wisconsin, 
in 1876, the metatarsal gland was one inch and six lines long, 
which, however, was no larger proportionately than is observed on 
animals of the ordinary size. The smallest I have ever found on 
on adult was on a small female and was six lines long. In all, 
both wild and in parks, from one ocean to the other, in the mid- 
dle States and north of them, I have found a wonderful uniformity 
in the size of this gland, varying, of course, with the size of the 
animal. 
Immediately around the naked space is a band of white hairs, 
which occupies a space on the skin about two lines broad, al- 
though from their being longer than those around them they 
appear to occupy a greater space. Immediately outside this 
white band there is usually a very narrow dark border, shading 
down to the prevailing color of the balance of the leg, which is 
more generally of a fawn color, though there is great variation in 
the color of the leg of the Common Deer, even more than on 
other parts of the body. Sometimes the band surrounding the 
white hairs is fairly black with the outer border adjoining the 
rufous colored and shorter hairs well defined. 
On the specimens found in the western mountainous regions 
and in the high northern latitudes — where they are called the 
white-tailed or the long-tailed deer, and have been doubtfully 
named C. leucurus — this dark border is wanting, and this is the 
only difference I can find in and about this gland from the com- 
mon variety here. In location, formation, size, and covering, 
they are precisely alike, save only this small pencil of deeply 
colored hairs surrounding the white tuft, which would never be 
noticed by the casual observer, and which would be unworthy 
the attention of the most critical inquirer, were it not for their 
constant presence and exact uniformity, except as to the depth of 
the color on nearly every specimen found east of the Rocky 
Mountain slope and south of latitude forty-three degrees north. 
On specimens from the far north and west, the white portions 
of the animal are appreciably more extensive than on specimens 
found here, as we have seen, when speaking of the coat and 
color ; and on one specimen in my collection from the far north- 
west, not only all the hairs in the region of this gland, but the 
whole leg, including the hock, is white, with a few red hairs in- 
terspersed along the lower front part. I cannot think that the 
